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¹⁴ Why do we sit still?
Gather together, let us go into the fortified cities
   and perish there;
for the Lord our God has doomed us to perish,
   and has given us poisoned water to drink,
   because we have sinned against the Lord.
¹⁵ We look for peace, but find no good,
   for a time of healing, but there is terror instead.

¹⁶ The snorting of their horses is heard from Dan;
   at the sound of the neighing of their stallions
   the whole land quakes.
They come and devour the land and all that fills it,
   the city and those who live in it.
¹⁷ See, I am letting snakes loose among you,
   adders that cannot be charmed,
   and they shall bite you,

says the Lord.

^{2 *}O that I had in the desert
   a traveller’s lodging-place,
that I might leave my people
   and go away from them!
For they are all adulterers,
   a band of traitors.
³ They bend their tongues like bows;
   they have grown strong in the land for falsehood, and not for truth;
for they proceed from evil to evil,
   and they do not know me, says the Lord.

⁴ Beware of your neighbours,
   and put no trust in any of your kin;^*
for all your kin^* are supplanters,
   and every neighbour goes around like a slanderer.
⁵ They all deceive their neighbours,
   and no one speaks the truth;
they have taught their tongues to speak lies;
   they commit iniquity and are too weary to repent.^*
6 Oppression upon oppression, deceit^* upon deceit!
   They refuse to know me, says the Lord.

⁷ Therefore, thus says the Lord of hosts:
I will now refine and test them,
   for what else can I do with my sinful people?^*
8 Their tongue is a deadly arrow;
   it speaks deceit through the mouth.
They all speak friendly words to their neighbours,
   but inwardly are planning to lay an ambush.
⁹ Shall I not punish them for these things? says the Lord;
   and shall I not bring retribution
   on a nation such as this?

¹⁰ Take up^* weeping and wailing for the mountains,
   and a lamentation for the pastures of the wilderness,
because they are laid waste so that no one passes through,
   and the lowing of cattle is not heard;
both the birds of the air and the animals
   have fled and are gone.
¹¹ I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins,
   a lair of jackals;
and I will make the towns of Judah a desolation
   without inhabitant.